Part 28 (1/2)
”The summit is spotted with queer little openings where soft rock has been washed out,” Frank said, ”and we can locate not far from the camp if we want to.”
”I suppose you boys are doing this under the orders of this Nestor boy?” asked Bradley. ”When you get to him, kindly ask him to call on me. I want to know what all this means.”
”Let's see, what was it you said about the child you brought in with you?” asked Jimmie, wrinkling his freckled nose until it did not seem possible to ever get it out straight again, ”what was it you said his name was? Was it Prince Abductable or Mike the Third?”
Bradley scowled but said nothing. The boys now set off up the slope with their prisoner. Now and then they turned to look into the canyon and the valley below.
The men they had observed in the canyon were slowly ascending. There were four of them, and it seemed to the boys that they were examining every foot of the ground they covered. Bradley looked downward, too, and a smile came to his face as he did so. It was plain that he expected help from that quarter.
The boys walked as swiftly as possible, and soon came to the summit, where a view of the camp was had. The corral where the mules were feeding was also in sight, farther down, and Teddy was seen making friends with Uncle Ike.
The camp looked so quiet and deserted that Jimmie took out his field gla.s.s again and looked closely. The flap of the tent was up, and the boy could see for some distance into the interior.
Trunks and boxes were open, their contents scattered about the floor.
A figure lay still on the floor, as if asleep. Jimmie could not see the face, but from the size and expression of the shoulders he imagined it to be Dode.
Oliver was not to be seen. Then, while the boy watched, with a premonition of approaching evil in his mind, he saw two men move out into the center of the tent. They were looking through handfuls of papers, or pictures, or something similar. Jimmie could not determine at that distance just what they were carrying.
”Look here, Frank,” the boy said, ”just take a look at the tent.”
Not a word to arouse the interest of the prisoner was said. Frank looked and handed the gla.s.s back to his chum. Jimmie knew what his chum feared as well as if he had put that fear into words. Bradley was smiling calmly.
”They have raided the tent!” Jimmie whispered, and Frank nodded.
”And they are destroying our plates and prints,” Jimmie went on, ”and so we'd better be getting down there to see about it.”
CHAPTER XIX
NED PLAYS THE MIND-READER
Jack stood in the little cabin in the valley and looked Ned expectantly in the face.
”Tell me,” he finally said, ”tell me why they painted this boy?”
”To get us off the trail of the prince,” replied Ned.
”But it seems that they failed,” suggested Jack. ”You know?”
”I suspected from the very first,” Ned answered. ”Yesterday afternoon I knew.”
”Well, it may be all right,” Jack muttered, ”or the man who brought him here may need a new wire on his trolley, but I can't see why they should bring this counterfeit prince here at all.”
”They knew that we were coming here,” Ned explained, resolved to give his chum a full understanding of the situation. ”They knew we were coming here in quest of the prince. How they knew I can't make out, but they knew.”
”They might have heard more than we supposed from the attic over the clubroom,” Jack suggested.
”If the story of the maid and the coachman is straight,” Ned continued, ”they heard little that night. But they knew! They might have bribed some of the servants. I don't know. They might have been in that room before that evening.
”At any rate, when the Boy Scout Camera Club started for West Virginia by way of Was.h.i.+ngton the friends of the abductors knew what was going on. Now, it is my opinion that the prince had been headed for the mountains before the conspirators became aware of our connection with the case.”